Former guard at federal prison in Springfield pleads guilty in murder-for-hire plot

Nov. 13, 2013

Robert W. Jones

Written by

News-Leader staff

A former correctional officer at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield pleaded guilty today to hiring someone to kill his wife’s ex-husband. He was working as a guard when he sought help for the murder from an inmate known to have helped run a drug trafficking organization.

According to a release from the U.S. Attorney for Western Missouri, Robert W. Jones, 43, is subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

Prosecutors say Jones contacted the medical center inmate and worked with him over numerous occasions to find a hit man to murder the ex-husband. While pretending to help Jones with the plan, the inmate actually was cooperating with federal investigators.

Because of the inmate’s leadership position in the drug organization, he had connections to people who could carry out such a request, according to the news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The inmate met with Jones for 10 to 15 private conversations in March and April 2012. Jones offered to give the inmate a cell phone to call a hit man, avoiding the possibility of the conversation being recorded on a landline at the prison.

Jones and the inmate had multiple meetings in July 2012, with Jones standing outside the inmate’s jail cell and speaking to him through an opening in the door, according to the news release.

During one meeting, which was recorded on prison surveillance, Jones told the inmate his wife had left him and took all their belongings except the couch, television and bills, and he blamed the wife’s ex-husband for her departure.

An undercover FBI agent posed as a hit man named “Chuey,” and the inmate gave Jones a telephone number to contact the hit man. Jones contacted Chuey and made arrangements to meet at the food court inside the Battlefield Mall. At that meeting, Jones told the undercover agent he would pay him $1,500 for the murder.

Jones gave the man a photo of the target, his home address and $1,500 in cash.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Jones was arrested.

In October of 2012, Jones’ attorney, Dee Wampler, filed an intention to use an insanity defense, citing depression and stress from Jones’ service during the Gulf War.

Jones’ father, Robert H. Jones, previously told the News-Leader he was concerned with his son’s mental state.

The criminal complaint lists the crime specifically as “use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.”